polisMOBILITY – A trade fair gets mobile

"He kütt Kölle" - "Here comes Cologne" - you almost feel like exclaiming when discussing with Ingo Riedeberger and Johannes Busmann. Although both speak polished and practically print-ready High German instead of Kölsch, they embody the liveliness and ease that you typically find in the Rhineland metropolis. The roles are clearly defined: Busmann has been focusing on the theme of the "polis" in his publishing house since 1990, with a concentration on urban development and the real estate industry. In addition to the city magazines "metro polis," he launched the "regio polis" series in 2022. Busmann, with his long grey hair, is the personification of calm, articulates clearly, and contrasts with the lively exhibition director Riedeberger, who is literally energizing the Cologne exhibition venue with many new ideas and formats.

Trade fairs need to diversify more than ever before and are increasingly moving from the exhibition grounds to the city centers. The polisMOBILITY is not only temporally but also spatially separated. Is this the future?

Riedeberger: Trade fairs must be thought of from the customer's perspective. For polisMOBILITY, we definitely didn't want to host another pure product show; instead, we asked ourselves: What do visitors expect when we focus on the theme of "municipal mobility transition"? If you expand the theme, you quickly end up at public transport and mobility services when it comes to passenger transport. For freight traffic, you soon come to the topic of last-mile logistics. This includes vehicles and propulsion technologies and urban sector coupling. And to manage all this, we need digitalization.

It sounds very complex...

Riedeberger: It is, which is why it's even more important not to narrow the focus too much, as this would miss important aspects, but also not to widen it too much, which would dilute the theme. However, we believe that with these six clearly defined thematic areas, we have found the right setting.

Busmann: Mobility is always a spatial issue. We don't ask about the vehicles that take you from point A to B or C, but rather how we can move efficiently and sustainably within a space in the future. This includes commuting to work, visiting a bar in the city center, picking up children from school, and traveling. The spatial arrangement of mobility is the responsibility of the state, federal, and municipal governments—in short, the public sector—but the important impulses from the private sector with their innovative technologies for electromobility and digitalization of mobility are essential for the transportation transition to succeed. We need to establish a place for interaction and discourse that understands mobility as a collective task and facilitates the exchange of various professional perspectives. Therefore, we need a trade fair with an integrated conference format where all stakeholders from the public and private sectors can meet on equal terms and where exciting discussions can emerge.

This also involves an intersectoral consideration because, of course, the mobility sector will no longer be able to develop successful mobility solutions on its own in the future. Implementing eMobility requires a powerful infrastructure and energy supply, communicating and controlling the vehicles require the capabilities of a smart grid, and autonomous driving demands the digital expertise and AI from software companies. The successful mobility of the future will be decided at the intersection of mobility, energy, and digitalization.

But a conference alone can only exchange and explain. But don't you also need concrete products or solutions for that?

Riedeberger: Correct, which is why we, as a trade fair, want to move away from a product show towards showcasing solutions. Thinking again from the visitor's perspective: At a large conference, you can meet many participants and interesting problem solvers and have engaging conversations. This is especially true for planners and urban developers. But how all of this will look and be implemented concretely, we'll show in the city, where we also meet people who are privately interested and affected by the whole topic. It's important that the product providers present themselves here in a consortium.

Those are high goals. Because with that, you not only have to link sectors but also target groups and show them solutions?

Riedeberger: Our vessel communicates B2G2C, meaning from Business to Governance to Citizen. For this, polisMOBILITY offers the perfect platform. But we differentiate. At the trade fair, we bring cities, municipalities, and administrations into dialogue with each other and with solution providers.

Busmann: Which is why the conference in combination with the trade fair is so important. If I organize a conference with 600 participants and can provide best practice examples, then I also offer added value for participants from mobility departments. Similarly, we expect numerous mayors at the general assembly of the German Association of Cities, where they can exchange ideas on a broad level.

Riedeberger: Fundamentally, we differentiate between trade and public exhibitions and consider both from the visitor and topic perspective. The conference and professional exhibition at the trade fair are primarily interesting and relevant for professional visitors. But such a broad topic as the mobility transition in urban areas can and must also be placed close to the public in the city center. This can be done in a discussion format, as an event, centrally or decentrally. We do this with the polisMOBILITY camp by showing products, solutions, and best practices within the city. There, we make the transition visible to everyone and enable on-site exchange. That's why we separate polis not only spatially but also temporally: While we present the exhibition and conference at the trade fairgrounds for the B2B2G audience during the week, we schedule the city center events for the weekend when private individuals have time to discuss and delve into the topic.

The interview was conducted by Gregor Soller